Goodbye to Crater Lake and Diamond Lake!

Today turned out to be our last day at Diamond Lake and Crater Lake.  The weather forecast for Wednesday includes snow and below freezing temperatures at night, so we think we'd better get out of Dodge tomorrow, ahead of any risk of snow or freeze.

This makes all the more poignant the things we did today.  For our morning coffee walk, we wandered down to the shore of Diamond Lake, only to see workers taking apart the dock to store it for the winter.  We were able to get one last photo of the dock, looking out into an autumnal lake and some never-say-die fishermen:

Mount Bailey, across the lake, was still struggling to get out from under its nightcap of clouds:

This was our last chance to hike around Crater Lake, and we decided to visit the Pinnacles and Watchman Peak.  The weather for the Pinnacles was beautiful and showed up the color of these formations:

The pinnacles were formed when steam and gases vented upward during the volcanic period through layers of volcanic ash and tuff that had been deposited on the landscape.  As the steam and gas created enormous pressure, working its way to the surface, it forced the ash and tuff around it to compress and fuse into harder rock than the material around it.  Later, over the millenia, the ash and tuff around the vent eroded (in this case, primarily through the flow of water from a stream through this canyon), leaving the harder, fused material, forming spooky pinnacles:

These formations are fascinating from every angle.  While the cliffs across the canyon appear to be the normal forested rock and soil, a close inspection showed that the soil is slowly eroding away, and we could see newly-born pinnacles peeping their heads through the soil, among the trees.  In another several thousand years, the other side of the canyon will sport its own pinnacles, just as the ones on this side of the canyon will have succumbed to erosion.

We stopped for a scrumptious and warming lunch at Rim Village and, surprisingly, got absolutely the best lattes we've ever had, save for the ones we found at a little coffee shop when we were visiting in Mairangi Bay north of Auckland, where David's sister lives.

After warming and filling up, we headed off to our afternoon adventure, which was a climb to the watchtower on Watchman Peak.  David was getting a little annoying with his constant humming of "All Along the Watchtower," but Kathy tried to ignore him.

The day had become very foggy on the rim of Crater Lake.  In places, as we drove, we could barely see more than 20 feet or so in front of us.  As we commenced our climb, the fog made Watchman Peak appear spooky.  With the wind, it gave Kathy quite a challenge as she tried to pose at the trailhead:

David kept running ahead.  Here he is almost getting lost in the mist as he searches all along the Watchman Trail for heaven knows what:

The watchtower is still actively used for fire spotting, but is also used for educational programs for visiting schoolchildren and others.  Today, it was closed, but we could see inside through the large windowpanes.  Here's Kathy peering in.  Believe it or not, Crate Lake is behind her, down below the rim:

Here is another profile of the watchtower:

Apparently, it had reached freezing last night up on Watchman Peak.  We believe that water from the clouds must have frozen onto the limbs of trees along the path, because, toward the top, we found piles of little pieces of ice under each tree, it appearing they then fell from the tree limbs onto the trail below as the day warmed up.  Here David is showing a fistful of ice.  It would not make a snowball, so Kathy was very lucky.

There was some thing that David did that pleased Kathy on the way down the mountain.  He's not sure what it was, but he captured her as she reached out with a big smooch:

Down at the trailhead, the clouds and mist had cleared just enough for us to get a view of the lake and Wizard Island with the clouds scudding across the rim opposite us.  If you look closely, you'll see that the clouds just cover the rim, but where the rim dips lower, you can see it free of clouds:

Since this is our last day, we decided to have another campfire and use up our firewood.  We cooked brussels sprouts and Ahi tuna over the open fire:

No campfire is complete without s'mores, and Kathy demonstrates the proper procedure for ENJOYING s'mores:

The Clark's Nutcrackers in the campground are little bandits.  They sense immediately when anyone brings food outdoors, and they almost steal it from your hands.  David was able to get a series of photos of one little devil as it hopped around the picnic table trying to eat pieces of brussels sprouts from the yellow serving bowl.  In the last photo, the bird had to fly away because it tried to perch on the bowl, which tipped because of the bird's weight.  If this photo is too small, you can click on it and view a larger version: